Holocene soils and sediments around Ma’rib Oasis, Yemen: Further Sabaean treasures?

Abstract

The ancient cultures of Southern Arabia are increasingly recognised as playing as major a role in the heritage of mankind as the early cultures of Egypt, Mesopotamia or the Indus Valley. The beginning of the widely known Sabaean culture dates back to the end of the second millennium BC. Whereas, undoubtedly, its wealth came mainly from the trade along the Incense Road, the backbone of its economy was irrigated agriculture. Since agriculture is based on soil and water resources and, hence, land availability, the buried soils and sediments of the area surrounding the Ma’rib Oasis have been investigated, both as an archive of Holocene soil development in Pre-Sabaean times and as ‘natural treasures’, as, for example, ores or alabaster are defined. The natural buried Holocene soils around Ma’rib are rich in phosphate, organic material and volcanic ashes. In a few places they demonstrate cultivation before the Great Dam of Ma’rib was built in the first millennium BC. Most important are those soils that formed during the Neolithic between 8000 and 3000 BC, a time before the permanent settlement of humans in the Bronze Age, and before the arrival of those of the early Sabaean period at the Ar-Rub’ Al-Khali desert margin. Since the area surrounding the oasis shows a huge variety of landscapes, such as dune belts, volcanic fields with archaeological structures and different soils, it is worth accentuating the significance of Holocene soils as an important record or archive of land use. As well as classical soil analysis, AMS- 14C-datings, the results of phytolith analysis and geochemistry, including XRF data, have been taken into consideration.